The ‘PALATE’ study

Precautionary labelling of food products, such as “may contain trace of…”, is a topical subject in immunology and allergy at present. There is no universal standardised correlation between the statement on the product label, and the amount of allergen in a product. This may put an individual with food allergy at risk, through both unknown amount of allergen and behaviours around access and use of these products.

The ‘PALATE’ study is a single-centre study proposed to run at John Hunter Children’s Hospital between January and July in 2016. It is organised by paediatric registrar Dr Christopher Vedeler and supervised by paediatric immunologist Dr Rani Bhatia, in collaboration with the paediatric immunology team.

The study will investigate the awareness of precautionary allergen labelling and the impact it has on the quality of life in families with children with food allergies. Parents and carers who attend with their child for the child's appointment in the Allergy clinics will be provided with an information sheet.

The subsequent survey is an electronic survey on iPads provided by the immunology team to parents and carers while waiting for their child's appointment. The goal is to include at least 250 subjects between January and July, and report and publish the findings.